14th -century fishermen – NRC

Around this time of the year, when summer is slowly but surely approaching, I always feel like holiday -like dishes. Think: Mediterranean cuisine and not too complicated, or at least easy to prepare. So that you can continue to bubble in the garden or on the terrace for a long and carefree way. And when it is really summer again, sunny and warm, I like to eat my supper at room temperature. A gran -salad, a vegetable dish – it is amazing how many vegetable dishes are secretly tastier at room temperature than warm from the pan – or simply a large bowl with all kinds of goodies. Tapas, Mezze, Hors-d’euvers, Antipasti, whatever you want to call them.

Our classic today meets each of these desires. Sarde in Saor is a specialty from Venice: fried sardines in a marinade of softly stewed onions with raisins, pine nuts and white wine vinegar. Anyone who ever visited La Serenissima and loves fish a little, has probably eaten it there. The fish are served cold, or rather at room temperature as ‘cicchetti’, snacks that, usually from the end of the afternoon, but sometimes also at the end of the morning, are displayed on the bar of the many wine bars that the city counts. The Venetian tradition wants you to order a glass of ‘Ombra’, a simple white wine from the region.

Sarde in Saor is a dish with a long history. Already around the year 1300, fishermen prepared their catch in this way on board, with the vinegar and onions to keep the fish fresh for longer. A few centuries later, after the great plague epidemic that ravaged Venice between 1575 and 1577, the Sardines would get a fixed role within the Festa del Reason. During this folk festival, which is still held every year on the third Sunday in July, the city remembers the end of epidemic with a procession to the Chiesa del Redertore, a large fireworks, cheerfully decorated boats and sardines in sweet and sour.

Where the fourteenth-century Venetian fishermen probably only used onions and vinegar, both excellent preservatives, the recipe slowly expanded to the Sarde in Saor as we know it today. Almost always with raisins, often also with pine nuts, and sometimes even a pinch of cinnamon, clove or coriander seeds. You just have to remember that Venice has always been a seafaring trading city, to understand that these are influences from more eastern regions.

Looking for the ultimate recipe for Sarde in Saor, I consulted a large number of Italian cookbooks and websites. What was particularly noticeable is how much the relationships vary between fish and vinegar, from just 50 ml to 400 ml of vinegar on a pound of sardines. The first does not seem sour enough to me – this is a recipe from Antonio Carluccio, who also adds 50 g of sugar – and the second seems much too sour to me. In some recipes, in addition to vinegar, white wine is also possible, and I thought that was a good idea. Anyway, you will find a version that represents a bit of the fourteenth-century Venetian fishermen, and is a bit of myself.

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